


Kristy's Next Great Idea

by empressearwig



Category: The Baby-Sitters Club (TV 2020)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Inspired by Novel, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:34:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27877685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/empressearwig/pseuds/empressearwig
Summary: Kristy Thomas does it again.
Comments: 11
Kudos: 35
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	Kristy's Next Great Idea

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Piscaria](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Piscaria/gifts).



It was the first Baby-Sitters Club meeting of the new school year, and Kristy was eager to get started. The second the clock on her phone rolled over, she pronounced, "This meeting of the Baby-Sitters Club will officially come to order. Has everyone been reading the google doc?" 

From her perch in the director's chair, she surveyed her--Claudia's, really--kingdom. All was squarely back to normal after a summer of weddings and moves and Camp Moosehead. Claudia and Stacey were sharing the bed, Claudia drawing on her sneakers and Stacey flipping through a fashion magazine. Mary Anne and Dawn were on the floor, giggling over something on Dawn's phone. Kristy could only assume it was something to do with their project to set up their parents.

A chorus of yeses answered her questions about the notebook, and she pressed on with her agenda. "What about the calendar? WIth school starting, has everyone added their new activities?"

More yeses. Kristy grinned and adjusted the collar of her turtleneck. A well organized kingdom was the only one she had any interest in and with that out of the way, she could move onto what she had mentally labeled new business. 

"Relax, Kristy," said Claudia. She pulled a package of Oreos from under her pillow and tossed them over. "Have a cookie."

Kristy took two, and passed them over to Mary Anne. "I just want to start the year off strong--I really feel like we accomplished a lot at Camp Moosehead and I don't want to lose our momentum."

"Momentum towards what?" Stacey asked warily. She took an apple slice from Dawn, who had brought her own healthy snack option. "Shouldn't we get used to our new schedules before we branch out into anything new?"

Mary Anne who looked worried, nodded. "My father has been talking a lot about how much harder eighth grade will be. What if he's right?"

"Mary Anne, when is your father ever right?" Kristy said, dismissively. She could feel things slipping away from her and decided to blurt it out. "Expansion, guys! We need to expand!"

Her announcement was met with blank expressions on the other four faces in the room. That was--not how she had expected this announcement to go. Surely her strong past performance of generating good ideas had earned her more goodwill than this? She mentally readjusted. Good leaders could think on the fly and react to opposition. And no one had actually said they were opposed yet, hearts and minds could still be won.

"My plan is two pronged," she said. 

Claudia groaned, and ate another Oreo. 

Kristy barrelled ahead. "First, we should do a big back to school advertising blitz. Try to get our names out in front of parents when they're at their most frazzled, you know? I know my mom always says the first month of the school year is the worst."

"It's not that I don't think it's a good idea, Kristy," said Mary Anne, her voice the kind of calm and soothing someone used when they were afraid of spooking a wild animal. "But we're pretty busy with the clients that we have, don't you think? I'm looking at the calendar and most of us are already booked with personal things at least one night a week, sometimes two. Where would we fit in _more_ jobs?"

Kristy flushed. This was where she had to admit to her own self-interest, and she didn't especially like it. "Well, I was sort of hoping to do some advertising in my new neighborhood? So I don't need rides to jobs as much? We never tried to get those kids before because most of them go to private school."

She ran her hand down her ponytail and avoided looking at her friends. It was strange not living next door to Mary Anne anymore and not being able to run across the street to Claudia's at the last minute for meetings. Now she had to text reminders to Charlie for rides and make sure that Stacey venmoed him money from the treasury for gas money once a week. But things _were_ going better than she'd thought they would before the Thomas's moved into the Brewer mansion, and if she could just find some baby-sitting jobs she could walk to, most of Kristy's world would be as close to normal as she could make it.

Because she wasn't looking, she missed the rest of the girls sharing stricken looks. 

"Of course we should advertise around Watson's house," said Dawn firmly, after just a moment. "I'm sure there are lots of kids around there, you've seen some of them, haven't you?"

Kristy shrugged her shoulders, and cleared her throat. She looked back at her friends and said more confidently, "A few moms with strollers and kids waiting at bus stops. I'm sure there are more. I was thinking we could stuff mailboxes with fliers like we did last fall? And maybe go to the back to school PTA meeting at Karen's school--she goes to Stoneybrook Academy and I saw the flyer on the kitchen counter."

"That sounds like a great idea," Mary Anne said loyally. "Any of those kids would be lucky to have you as their new sitter, Kristy."

"That doesn't solve the problem of how we're going to cover our old jobs _and_ the new ones we should totally try to get for Kristy, though," Stacey said. "I believe you mentioned a two pronged plan?"

"Junior baby-sitters!"

Everyone looked at her blankly. 

"Look, we were all impressed with Mallory Pike and Jessi Ramsey's performance as Junior CITs at Camp Moosehead, weren't we?"

"Of course," said Claudia. "But what does that have to do with anything? Helping at camp isn't baby-sitting."

"No, but Mallory was a total help to Mary Anne and I when we were in Sea City with the Pikes," Stacey said. She looked over at Mary Anne. "Didn't you think?"

"She was great," Mary Anne agreed. "And Jessi was a huge help with the show at camp--not just with the choreographing, but the organizing and keeping everyone together."

" _And_ they helped me find Karen when she ran away," Kristy said. "I know Mallory has always wanted to baby-sit and I know that Jessi often watches her little brother and sister. I know they're younger, and I'm sure they wouldn't be able to do as many night jobs, but even if they could only cover some of the afternoon jobs for us, that would make scheduling a lot easier, wouldn't it, Mary Anne?"

Mary Anne checked their shared calendar. "From a quick glance, I'd have to say yes. Stacey would be better able to do an actual analysis of how many of our jobs are in the afternoon vs evening, and so on, but I do think it would help. Potentially a lot."

"Would we get enough jobs at night to make up for the ones that we're giving up in the afternoon?" Claudia asked. "I have art supplies to buy and I've grown accustomed to a certain amount of discretionary income."

As a group, they all looked at her. That had been a decidedly un-Claudia sentence.

"Janine _is_ my sister," Claudia said, throwing a pillow at Kristy. "I do occasionally listen to her."

"Try to warn us first so we don't think a pod person took over your body," Kristy said, throwing the pillow back. "I suspect that we might see an initial drop in our individual jobs, but if you couple our expanded night availability with new clients in my neighborhood, I'd guess we'd actually gain jobs in the long term. Again, we could ask Stacey to try to do some analysis."

"I like math, you guys, but I'm not an economist," Stacey said, a small look of panic on her face. "But what Kristy is saying makes sense to me. I'd be willing to try."

"We could always offer Jessi and Mallory probationary positions?" Dawn interjected. "Like I had. But maybe with less hazing and fewer unrealistic expectations?" She shot Kristy a look and Kristy returned it sheepishly. 

"No hazing, check," Kristy said, nodding her head. "But maybe some kind of test? Or observations? We have to make sure that they'd be up to the standard that our clients have come to expect from the BSC."

"Test, no," Claudia said, with a shudder. "Tests are bad."

"Observing them on jobs makes sense," Mary Anne said. "That seems like a good idea."

Kristy looked around the room. "So, do we all agree? We will offer Jessi and Mallory probationary roles as junior members of the Baby-Sitters Club, pending on the job observations of their baby-sitting skills? I think we should vote. Should there be a secret ballot?" 

"What about a show of hands?" Dawn suggested instead. "It is hard to build consensus if you don't know what all members of your coalition think."

"I agree with Dawn," said Mary Anne. "Besides, we should all agree on something as big as new members, don't you think?"

"Hearing no dissent, everyone in favor of this proposal to expand the BSC, raise your hand," said Kristy.

Everyone's hands shot into the air. 

Kristy tried not to show how pleased she was. "The motion carries! Who wants to call Mallory?"

"I think our newest member should invite the next members," said Stacey. "Do you want to, Dawn?"

Dawn looked surprised. "Me? I thought we'd want Kristy to do it. It was her idea and she _is_ president."

"We want to _ask_ them, not order them," Claudia said. She looked over at Kristy. "No offense. You can just be a little…"

"Assertive," finished Mary Anne, hurriedly. "And it's a good thing! But maybe a softer approach is the right one? You can sometimes _tell_ and not ask."

Kristy tried not to pout. Asking was not something she was good at and she knew it. But her mom had always told her to take what was hers and not apologize for it. But she supposed other people weren't actually hers to take and so it was possible she was not the right person for this task. A good leader knew when to delegate a responsibility. She would be the bigger person here and allow Dawn to take lead on this project.

"Sure. That sounds like a good idea," she said. "Will you make new fliers for us to pass out at Stoneybrook Academy and around Watson's neighborhood, Claud?"

"Of course," Claudia said. She looked pleased, and not a little relieved. Kristy wasn't sure if it was because she'd expected Kristy to push back on the assessment of her character or because no one had tried to horn in on her art turf. "I'm going to need money for printer paper and ink, though."

Before Kristy could inquire about the status of the treasury, the phone rang and then didn't stop ringing for the rest of the meeting. 

"Let's talk tomorrow at lunch about how Dawn should approach Mallory and Jessi," Kristy said, as she grabbed her bag and darted out Claudia's door. Charlie had already honked once and Kristy really didn't want to give him cause to do it again. "Bye, everyone!"

She ran down the Kishi's steps and out their front door, jumping into the front seat of Charlie's car as his hand hovered over the horn. She buckled her seatbelt and hugged her backpack to her chest, a wide smile on her face.

They were back.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Yuletide! I hope you will forgive me the brief canon divergence--I got really excited about the idea of adapting another novel and was sort of going for a Kristy and the Snobs/Hello Mallory vibe here, and despite rewatching the series before writing totally blanked on the offer to join the club that happens at the end of the last episode. I hope this still makes for an enjoyable Yuletide reading experience for you, because it was a delight to write for me.


End file.
